LADY MONDEGREEN

To the left is Lady Mondegreen, who does not exist.  Her Ladyship corrects us with the original words that were misheard as her name and brought her into existence as explained below. Click on the picture for the larger view.

American writer Sylvia Wright coined the term in her essay "The Death of Lady Mondegreen," published in Harper's Magazine in November 1954.
....

In the essay, Wright described how, as a young girl, she misheard the last line of the first stanza from the 17th-century ballad "The Bonny Earl O'Moray". She wrote:

When I was a child, my mother used to read aloud to me from Percy's Reliques, and one of my favorite poems began, as I remember:

Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,

Oh, where hae ye been?

They hae slain the Earl O' Moray,

And Lady Mondegreen.

The actual fourth line is "And laid him on the green". Wright explained the need for a new term:

The point about what I shall hereafter call mondegreens, since no one else has thought up a word for them, is that they are better than the original.

How this all came about is that last night I posted on Facebook the video below, 'Bad Moon Rising' by Creedence Clearwater Revival, with the headling, 'DON'T GO AROUND TONIGHT!'  My friend PJ was the first to comment with, "Theeeere's a bathroom on the right!" (Somebody had to say it.)  Yes, somebody surely had to say it.  My other friend susan s., would have said it if she had commented first (but she didn't).





Then I mentioned my memory of my first Mondegreen, which is from the 'Hail Mary', 'Blessed art thou amongst swimmin', and blessed is the fruit of thy wound, Jesus.'

Then Padre Mickey chimed in with his, "Bringing in the Sheets".

If you care to leave your personal Mondegreens in a comment, your favorite misunderstandings from your own experience, well, I'd really like that.
  

OCCUPY AND BLOGGER'S BLOCK

The two iconic churches, Trinity Church Wall Street in New York, pictured to the left, and St Paul's Cathedral in The City of London, pictured below, have been much on my mind for the past several days.  The famous churches are coincidentally(?) located in the financial districts of the two great cities.  What I've thought of is the face-off between the churches and the Occupy groups in both cities. After a period of time, the authorities in the churches decided that the Occupiers had to go, and the groups were forcibly removed.  The right choice for the churches, to come down on the side of the 99%, seemed stark and obvious to me, but both chose to move against the Occupiers.  These are churches, for heaven's sake, the Body of Christ.

Occupied Bishop George Packard, a retired bishop in the Episcopal Church, gets it.  He joined the Occupiers and has been arrested twice in connection with Occupy protests.

Giles Fraser, former Canon Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral, gets it, too.  He resigned his position when the authorities in the church decided to remove Occupy London protestors by force from the grounds around the cathedral.  He now serves as priest-in-charge at St Mary's Newington, a parish in one of the poorer neighborhoods in South London.

The Occupy movement is by no means finished.  Just because the groups are not occupying parks and squares in their tents or marching in protests every day does not mean that they have disappeared.  Disdain for the elite and their absorption in prospering themselves and their near total disregard for the common good will not go away.

Now that this post is written, perhaps I'll be able to move on to other subjects besides the 'Story of the Day'...not that there's anything wrong with the stories, because if I didn't like them, I would not post them.   


Photo of Trinity from Wikipedia.
Photo of St Paul's from Cathedral & History.

UPDATE: An Occupy.com Profile: Bishop Packard

STORY OF THE DAY

wears long, floaty stuff so she doesn't 
forget that she's really only connected to 
the earth by the very tips of her toes

From StoryPeople.

STORY OF THE DAY - HINDSIGHT

I didn't listen to her because she was my 
mother & wouldn't know anything until 
I was much older.

From StoryPeople.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

BATEAUX DE BOIS FESTIVAL

Yesterday the Friends for Traditional Louisiana Boat Building sponsored the first Bateaux de Bois Festival in Lockport, Louisiana, which was a grand success. The weather forecast showed an 80% chance of rain on Saturday. Friday was a total washout, and it seemed that Saturday would be more of the same. The organizers, including Grandpère, were mired in gloom.

But Saturday morning arrived with patches of sunlight, and the weather outlook was much improved, although rain was still in the forecast but not until the afternoon.  The rains didn't come until the around 1:30 pm, and by then a good many of the activities had already taken place.  The museum building and several sturdy tents made it possible for people to stay around.  


When my son, daughter-in-law, and I arrived at the festival, and GP saw us, he choked up because he was so pleased with the number of people who showed up.  He's quite emotional, but I was happy for him and the other organizers who worked so hard planning and making the festival come together.  The purpose was to call attention to and raise funds for the Center for Traditional Louisiana Boat Building.

Above is Grandpère being interviewed by a local television station.



The two beautiful girls on the right are my granddaughter and the daughter of a friend of ours.

Left is one of the bands that played at the festival.  This one, as you see, is a one-man band.

Couples doing a Cajun jitterbug dance pictured on the right.

The festival raised several thousand dollars for the boat center, which operates on a shoestring.  The museum is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays, staffed by Grandpère (Tom Butler) and one other faithful volunteer.

Click here for another post about the center.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GEORGE CARLIN!

George Carlin would be 75 today.  I'm sure he's smiling down on us from on high.  In fact, George may even be on a heavenly high celebrating the day.

Below is young George as Al Sleet, the Hippy Dippy Weatherman, on The Ed Sullivan Show.




Thanks to Daily Kos Cheers and Jeers for the reminder via Paul (A.).

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

 

The real reason that we can't have the Ten Commandments in a courthouse: You cannot post "Thou shalt not steal," "Thou shalt not commit adultery," and "Thou shalt not lie" in a building full of lawyers, judges, and politicians.

It creates a hostile work environment.

(George Carlin)

Cheers,

Paul (A.)

Paul (A.) is one of 'em.  Just saying.  (Not one of the Ten Commandments - a lawyer!)

R. I. P. JAY'CORY JONES

Rochester, Minnesota – A 17-year-old openly gay teen succumbed to overwhelming bullying, taking his own life this past Sunday. Jay’Cory Jones jumped to his death into traffic from a pedestrian bridge near Century High School, according to police reports. According to his father, Jones was beaten down by the incessant school bullying he endured for being open and vocal about his sexual orientation. His father, JayBocka Strader, told the  PostBulletin....

More from Leonardo at Eruptions at the Foot of the Volcano.

Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Rest eternal grant to Jay'Cory, O Lord,
and let light perpetual shine upon him. Amen.

O Lord, give comfort, consolation, and the peace that passes understanding to all who love Jay'Cory.  Amen.

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS AND THE GIRL SCOUTS

From Bryan Cones at US Catholic:

I suppose this whole thing would be a little comic--the USCCB investigating the Girl Scouts sounds more like an article in The Onion than one in the Associated Press--except for the fact that the Girl Scouts do such great work in helping girls defend themselves from a consumer culture that encourages them to think of themselves as sex objects with credit cards (as we explored in our May issue cover story). The bishops with this move also manage to irritate the last segment of the female population still available to offend: preadolescent girls and teens (having already tweaked both women of childbearing age on contraception, and religious women for whatever it is the sisters have been doing at their annual meetings).

Seriously, some honcho at the USCCB needs to put a stop to this. It looks a little, um, unhinged.

The overreach by the bishops for some sort of nebulous purity within the church begins to look like the spreading madness of an inquisition.  What an embarrassment to thinking Roman Catholics.  Who's next on the bishops' hit list?

Click on the cartoon for the larger view.

V IS FOR VICTORY

Nevermind the timing, the motivation, the political calculation, or whatever else may have affected his decision, President Obama did the right thing when he announced that he favors same-sex marriage.  Instead of carping, how about if we just take a victory lap?